Flipkart, Amazon spar over success of smartphone sales

Amazon said the sale of Samsung and Apple devices were up 16 times and 40 times, respectively, on the first day, but did not share the actual numbers.Gulveen Aulakh | ETTelecom | May 18, 2017, 22:32 IST

New Delhi: Flipkart and Amazon took potshots at each other over which online retail platform did better in the top-selling smartphone segment during their respective sales this past week.

The Indian company claimed that on the first day of its sale, it netted three times the value of what Amazon managed to get from smartphones during its entire sale. Amazon countered that its smartphone sales jumped seven-fold ‘over business as usual’ on the first day.

Amazon’s Great Indian Sale took place between from May 11 to 14, while Flipkart’s Big 10 Sale was from May 14 to 18.Industry experts pegged Flipkart’s first day smartphones sales at Rs 500 crore.

“Smartphones on Flipkart during the Big 10 Sale witnessed the highest sales across all categories,” said Ayyapan Rajagopal, senior director of smartphones at Flipkart. He added that the sale of smartphones in the first 24 hours of going live was the highest ever done in one day in the category by any retailer in 2017.

“The selection of models and pricing (discounts) that we had, other players did not,” Rajagopal said. “We have done close to 3x in terms of value of what they have done during their (entire) sale.” He did not share details of revenue.

ET reported on Wednesday, citing industry sources, that Amazon continued to offer aggressive discounts on popular smartphone models including Apple and Samsung phones even after its sale ended. Amazon had categorically denied any extension of the sale period.

The US ecommerce company said that during its sale, it saw a 141% increase in customers acquisition through smartphones over normal days.

“During the Great Indian Sale, smartphones was one of the top-selling categories and we saw a 7x jump over BAU (business as usual) on day one itself. Several marque brands like Samsung and Apple saw blockbuster growth on the platform and Prime-only deals on Redmi 4A were sold out in 43 seconds,” an Amazon India spokesperson told ET on Thursday.

While Rajagopal did not confirm the numbers, he said Flipkart sold 1.2 times the premium smartphones priced upwards of Rs 30,000 during the sale period, which ended May 18 midnight.

“The number of iPhones sold by Flipkart in 12 hours since May 14th midnight is equal to the number of iPhones sold in the whole of India in 15 days,” he said. About 35,000 iPhones are sold in a fortnight in India and at an average sale price of Rs 35,000 apiece, the iPhones would have contributed about Rs 122 crore.

Amazon said the sale of Samsung and Apple devices were up 16 times and 40 times, respectively, on the first day, but did not share the actual numbers.

Smartphones have become a critical to volume and value sales for ecommerce companies. The segment contributed close to 25% of the overall gross merchandise value through 2016 and is expected to remain at similar levels in 2017, analysts said, highlighting the importance of the segment.

“Smartphones grew 150% YoY in 2016 and we continue to see strong growth through this year as well,” the Amazon spokesperson added.

Besides Apple and Samsung, brands including Xiaomi, Motorola, Oppo, Lenovo, Micromax and Lenovo have taken to either or both sites to tap the online market which is growing at a flat pace, cornering 33% of the overall retail market. Analysts said sharp discounts and offers through big bang sales can stir up smartphone purchases.

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